Bureaus may need cleaning more than refinishing

Q. I was given these two bureaus recently by an elderly friend. They were purchased from Pane’s Furniture in Boston sometime between 1910 and 1930. The top drawer of each piece has a mark that looks like a pot of flowers.

I would like to sell them, but refinishing them would cost about $600. How much more would they be worth if I did have them refinished?

A. During the 20th century, some furniture manufacturers branded their products or applied labels in a drawer. This was sometimes coupled with a symbol associated with the company.

The Colonial Desk Co., for example, used the image of a slant-front desk on a sign board, the Skandia Furniture Co. used a Viking ship in a double-ringed circle and the Florence Table and Manufacturing Co. used the image of a woman (it actually looks more like a young girl) in an 18th century-style dress.

Unfortunately, we could not see the trademark on these pieces well enough to identify them. As for “Pane’s Furniture,” it might be possible that you are referring to “Paine Furniture,” which was founded in Boston in 1835 and went out of business in 2000.

There is no question that these pieces were manufactured and not handmade, and we date their origin much closer to 1930 than 1910. The style of this chest-of-drawers — and what we believe is a dresser base missing its mirror — is popularly called “French Provincial,” a furniture category popular in the United States throughout the mid-20th century.

Most French furniture designs that appeal to serious collectors originated in or around Paris, and were created to please the rich and the royal. However, there was also life outside of Paris, and those who lived in the provinces tended to have less elaborate and/or sophisticated pieces made for their homes that were influenced by the various big city designs but not a slave to them.

American manufacturers made a variety of styles under this “French Provincial” umbrella, and the pieces in today’s question fit into this category. These two items probably were part of a bedroom grouping that also included either one or two beds, perhaps a vanity and bench, and one or two bedside tables.

In almost every instance, refinishing diminishes the value of antiques significantly — but the effect is not as great on pieces of “used furniture” such as these. Sometimes, however, refinishing cannot be avoided if there’s an ugly coat of modern paint or something like that.

The insurance replacement value of this chest and dresser base in their current condition is somewhere between $350 and $500. Refinishing them will not raise it very much, if at all. A good, inexpensive cleaning may help them as much as a trip to the refinisher.

Ÿ Contact Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson at Treasures in Your Attic, P.O. Box 18350, Knoxville, TN 37928.